Massive global commitments from the private sector are an absolute necessity if we are to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement and the consequent need for a carbon-neutral world by 2050.
For several years now, private players have been organizing themselves in coalitions such as GFANZ (Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero) in collaboration with the UN's "Race to Zero" initiative. The resulting commitments are essential to guarantee the systemic effect of individual actions.
Methodological consistency and transparency of environmental data throughout the value chain are essential to the relevance of actions and the measurement of their impact. It is necessary to better coordinate these coalitions as a whole, and to develop tools to facilitate the circulation of data and accountability for commitments made.
With this in mind, the One Planet Data Hub, since renamed Net-Zero Data Public Utility, announced ahead of COP26 in the presence of the French President, has two objectives:
- To monitor the implementation of commitments made by international coalitions of private stakeholders ;
- To enable aggregate tracking of financial flows in support of the transition.
This open-access platform aims at gathering information relating to the private sectors’s commitments in terms of ecological transition. It thus acts as an international observatory in the field of green finance by encouraging transparency in all economic and financial sectors.
At COP28 in Dubai, French President Emmanuel Macron and the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Climate Ambition and Solutions Michael R. Bloomberg unveiled the proof of concept of the Net-Zero Data Public Utility, which is designed to become the first global, centralized and open repository for private sector data related to the climate transition accessible to all. The NZDPU will provide unprecedented transparency on a set of private sector climate data essential to the net-zero transition.
The fight against climate change is a race against the clock, and so we must cooperate. But this multiplication of coalitions and the heterogeneity of commitments, brings with it a risk of diluting action, and in a way, of misjudging our collective efforts – ultimately, there is the matter of transparency of results, and with it the trust of our citizens. Therefore, we must ensure the different coalitions we have established are easy to understand, more effective and more homogenous, by enabling their results to be combined. That is why I am very pleased that the One Planet Summit is introducing this new initiative for transparency and accountability.